


As the leg of Voltron

by DevilsgotStories



Series: What it takes to fight a war [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Gen, He really needs a hug, Hunk is a leg, Season 2 spoilers (kind of?), They're Going Home, appearance change, bUT WHERE IS HOME, changes over time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-26
Updated: 2017-04-26
Packaged: 2018-10-24 08:10:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10737648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevilsgotStories/pseuds/DevilsgotStories
Summary: (season two spoilers) Allura's offer to the paladins have them shaken and thinking hard.  Shiro and Matt are healing now, everyone is a ball of different emotions, ad Hunk knows that he's the one who will have to pick them up when they fall apart.  It's his job, to lift the team up.





	As the leg of Voltron

The castle was unusually quiet and it was slowly driving Hunk insane.  It had been three days since they rescued Shiro and Matt and it would be at least another week and a half before either of them would be able to come out of the healing pod.  Keith had apologized to the team after the two of them had been put into the healing pods and it was confirmed they’d make a full recovery, holding Lance’s hand while the taller boy wiped at his nose, eyes red.  

Hunk sighed, looking at his face in the mirror.  He had a scar across his nose, pretty similar to how Shiro’s was.  He hated it, constantly reminded of how it made him look less friendly.  His skin was patchy at best, the color no longer even as space took it’s toll and dried out his already dry skin.  He’d probably have to resolve to using Lance’s stuff until they could make a stop and get something for him because as of right now, he felt and looked like old leather that had been left in the desert.  

He was a naturally sweet and passive person, he believed in peace and using his words rather than his actions.  He didn’t like hurting others, and he hated when he got mad and lost control.  He used to think yellow was a happy color, bright and joyful.  Now?  It resembled war, heated battles, near death experiences and terrifying truths.   He shook his head, rinsing his mouth out and spitting out the Altean form of toothpaste.  He looked back in the mirror.  His appearance was so different than what it had been when he was on Earth.  He head been on the heavier side, a big belly and big arms.  He had been comfortable in his own skin, not ashamed of how he looked, and the squishy fat had made him a comfortable bed when Lance needed to be held or comforted.  

Now?  He was still a big guy, but his big arms had become swollen with the muscle required for piloting Yellow and for wielding his bayard. Not to mention the intense training and heavy lifting that was usually left to him.  The fact that the main thing his diet consisted of was protein packed food goo probably shaved off a few pounds as well.  His belly still had some softness to it but there was no question that right underneath it was powerful muscle.  He had a bit of dark scruff along his jaw and chin that he’d most likely shave in a day or two, it made him look rougher and more dangerous. He was a powerhouse, no longer able to shrink and curl into himself to make himself look smaller.  He couldn’t, that wasn’t how a paladin should act.  He had to appear strong so that their allies wouldn’t second guess the strength of Voltron.

Hunk left his bathroom, wanting to get away from looking at the man in the mirror he didn’t recognize.  He got dressed, knowing that they wouldn’t be training today.  It would be a suicide mission to try and drag Pidge or Keith away from the med bay.  

He walked aimlessly, not paying much attention to where he was going before he found himself in the planning room.  He put his hands in his pockets, looking around the walls he had grown use too.   _ It’s funny _ , he thought to himself,  _ we fight for freedom yet we’ve become prisoners to our duty, serving nations and worlds we had no clue existed.   _ His face was stone set with a grim look, his resting nice face having slipped into the shadows over time.  _ Who knew so much could change in the course of two years? _

He moved, stopping in front of the pad before typing in Earth’s coordinates.  He scrolled through the 3D map before stopping at the image of the blue and green planet.  Arus looked like Earth with a few differences.  They had landed on Arus the day they got Shiro and Matt back.  They had been there for two days before taking off again, a new place in their sights.  He grunted, slipping his hands back into his pocket as he watched the Earth rotate.  

_ I wonder how many natural disasters have happened, who was voted the U.S president?  Is everyone still at war or had treaties been signed?  Is the Earth still dying?  Is same sex marriage legal now?  Are people still rioting?  How many songs have grown popular only to fade away a month later?  What’s the biggest scandal of celebrities?  _

He let out a mild huff of amusement through his nose, such trivial things.  Things, that as a twenty year old on Earth he’d be worried about it.  On Earth, he wasn’t old enough to even drink, but in space he was clearly old enough to fight a war and put his life on the line every day.  

His oldest brother, his father, his grandfather and great grandfather had all been in the military and fought in some kind of war, leaving the beautiful beaches of Hawaii to go fight.  Hunk had always thought they were the bravest men in the world, thought they were the strongest men in the world.  Now?  The wars his family had fought in looked like child's play. They were needless.  Humans fighting each other over petty things like an insult to an oversensitive person, resources that were drying.  Facing a human was nothing, they didn’t have claws that could rip people open in one swipe.  They didn’t have teeth that could elongate or produce lethal venom.  When you shot them or took off their head they didn’t simply grow another and just get really pissed off and become three times stronger.

“Hey,” Hunk glanced behind him, seeing Lance approach.  He nodded his greeting, looking back at the planet.  Hunk and Lance had been friends since they met at the garrison, a boy from Hawaii and a boy from Cuba bonding over their different backgrounds surrounded by ignorant white people.  Hunk had witnessed Keith and Lance’s rivalry from the very beginning and had watched them fall for each other over time.  He was happy for his friends, ecstatic that they had grown so much and could learn to not just tolerate each other but love each other as well.  He was more or less amazed that they had lasted through the last year.  Honestly, he was amazed that any of them had lasted the last year, or the last two years in general.  They had been baby faced teenagers, their futures planned to have a few trips out into space to one of the nine planets (he totally counted Pluto as a planet after seeing some of the other “planets”) or their moons.  Without one day of experience they had launched, or more so were forced into a war against a tyrant who had been ruling for over ten thousand years.  Looking back now he probably would have made mostly the same choices as he did before.

He didn’t regret sneaking out that night with Lance and Pidge.  He didn’t regret flying through the wormhole or finding the yellow lion.  He  _ definitely  _ did not regret Yellow.  He loved his lion with all his heart.  He didn’t regret saving and freeing the people he had, or meeting Shay.  She had pretty much became his girlfriend without the official title.  In Balmera terms they were courting each other.  What he  _ did _ regret was who he had become.  He still had traits of his old self, but he didn’t like some of the traits he had grown in need to survive.  

“Are you excited to go home?”  Lance asked quietly and Hunk took in a deep breath before letting out a dry chuckle, shaking his head slightly.  

“Ask me that two years ago and I would have probably thrown up at the idea of the ride there and from excitement,” he said quietly and Lance echoed his chuckle.  

“I’ve been missing Earth for so long, after the first day I woke up in the castle I knew I wasn’t in Kansas anymore,”  he joked and Hunk glanced at him, the smallest of smiles on his face and he chuckled again, a bit more genuinely at the pun he had made.  Lance continued, “now that we’re going back...the deal Allura cut with us...I’m more in shock than I am excited.”

“We have a few days to think about it.  We have a month with friends and families who most likely think we died in the desert, or whatever the garrison told them.  It’s a lot to take in,”  Hunk said slowly, as if still trying to process them himself.  

“Yeah, I’m gonna take so many photos of my family and download every single song I can...oh and I’m totally bringing my charger and laptop now that I’ll get a chance to actually pack,”  Lance laughed, Hunk wanted to join him, he really did want to jump along with the playful joking that had been the foundation of their friendship.

“I know we’re not supposed to ask each other, but do you think you’ll come back?”  Hunk asked and the air became heavy.  They were returning to Earth, but not permanently.  From the time they left the ship they would have one month to be with their friends and families or do whatever they wanted/needed and by the end of the month, if they returned then they returned, if they didn’t, then the ship would leave with no further questions.  

_ “I know that this was forced upon all of you, and I want you to know that you all live up to the paladins of old’s legacy and even surpassed it.  You have done everything I’ve asked of you all, given me everything.  So now I must give you all something as well.  We’ve set a course for Earth,”  Allura said and the four paladins who weren’t in the healing pod froze.  “We’ll arrive about four days after Shiro and Matt wake up, so that everyone has time to decide and so that we also close some of the distance that I would have to put the wormhole through.  You’ll have a month to leave the castle, you can do whatever you want, visit family or friends, whatever you need to do that you didn’t get to do before.  At the end of the month you have a choice to make.  You can return to the castle and to Voltron, or you can chose to stay.  We will find someone else to pilot your lion if you chose to stay.  We will not condemn you or damn you.  I understand if you chose your own path seeing as you were shoved onto this one.  It will be up to you.  Don’t ask each other about your choices and decisions, it’s something each paladin must decide for them-self,” Alurra said honestly. _

“I like to think that I’ll come back, I know that Keith doesn’t really want to go at all.  Besides, Blue chose me, why would I spit in her face like that?  I’m planning on coming back...as much as I miss Earth...I’ve seen what the Galra can do.  And I don’t want to see my family ripped apart like others have,” the Cuban said and Hunk nodded slowly.  It was silent for a long moment before Lance glanced at him.  “And you?  Will you come back?”  He asked and Hunk took in a deep breath.  

“I’m not sure I want to go down either, I kind of agree with Keith. I like to think that my family has dealt with the pain of losing me and they’re learning how to move on with their lives...showing up randomly...when they probably thought I was dead?  Then I’d have to tell them that I wasn’t really back, only for a little bit before I had to go back into space to fight giant purple humanoid angry cats.  That would just destroy them all over again because they’d lose me a second time,” Hunk said quietly, clearly having thought about it heavily already.  

“Yeah but don’t you miss the Earth?  The smell...the people, conversations that won't be the difference between peace and an all out bloodbath? Grass, oceans, rain, showers with water and not the stuff Coran says is the altean form of water?  Hugs from your mom and teasing from your siblings?  Hunk~actual human food with human ingredients?  Home!  You’re saying you don’t miss any of it?”  Lance exclaimed, disbelief in his eyes.  Hunk pinched the bridge of his nose, taking in a deep breath to try and push the second nature anger and defensiveness that rose when someone raised their voices now.   _ He doesn’t get it _ .  

“Lance.  I miss all of that, I do.  I really...really miss it.  But it’s not where I belong anymore.  Earth isn’t my home anymore.  I would feel so out of place, so  _ heavy _ and unproductive.  After the crap I’ve gone through out here...there’s no way in hell that I’d be able to settle for a day job, working nine to five.  If being out here has taught me anything, it’s that humans are some of the pettiest creatures out there.  I’d be a stranger in my own home.  I feel...I feel like…”  his anger had faded intense sorrow taking over as his voice cracked.  “I feel like I could stand right in front of my family and they wouldn’t even recognize who I am anymore.  And I don’t think that I could handle them looking at me as if I was just another person,” his voice cracked again and Lance moved, hugging the bigger man tightly and letting him curl down, hiding his face in the cubans neck as he rubbed his back, Hunk hugging him back tightly.  

“ _ I, _ barely recognize the person in the mirror.  How would they know it was me?  How would I even explain myself?  How would I explain to my parents that the most passive person they knew now jumped at every sound and got aggressive towards anyone who raises their voice?  Lance...I can’t do it.  I just...can’t,” Hunk let tears slip from his eyes, the first ones that he’d shed in a long time.   _ Why?  Why haven’t I cried in a long time?  Because I had to become strong, I had to become brave, stable enough so I could lift the team up.  When Shiro left and Lance started crippling I had to take care of the team.  Someone had too.  Lance helped sometimes, we’re like the caretakers of everyone.  But Lance had his weak moments too.  My team needed someone to lean on, even the Princess.  And as the leg of Voltron I had to lift them up, supporting them and when their legs gave out completely I had to pick them up and carry them on my shoulders.  I cradled Lance when he cried, having insecurities about his place on the team and if he belonged on the team or about how he was tired of taking lives.   _

_ I let Keith kick and scream at me, punching left in right and throwing off every insult there was until his tears choked him up, and then I’d sit with him for hours as he ranted about how terrible everything could be.  We’d get into conversations about if there was a God and if he could see us all the way out here.   _

_ I’d hold Pide back from destroying all of their work and inventions when they sprung into a fit of rage triggered by something small.  I’d listen to them growl about how they hated being on the team and everyone on board and they wanted to go home and for everything to just  _ **_stop_ ** ,  _ then I’d help them repair and damage they may have done before I stopped them and would listen to them apologize. _

_ I listened to Allura rant about battle plans and different ideas or something that had pissed her off.  I’d hear any misgiving she had or thoughts on a new person and she’d talk for hours because in the end Shiro was gone and he had been the one to listen to her talk like this without complaint.   _

_ I helped Coran out around the castle and did way more than my share of chores and work because I knew that my team had a hard time getting up in the morning and that it would just be easier on them if I did it.   _

_ I took care of them all, becoming a therapist for them when they needed me.  I became strong.  I supported their weight and became their legs when their own wouldn’t work.  I became brave, letting Lance take over Shiro’s leadership while I took over the muscle and intimidation the black paladin had given off.  I helped my friends out and morphed into something else along the way.   _

_ I’ve killed people to protect my new family, I’ve ended their lives, watched the light drain from their eyes.  I’d held someone’s life in my very hands and I clenched my fist so that we could get out alive.  I’d been faced with the question of “them or me,” far too many times for one lifetime.  I stopped being me so that the others could cling to whatever was left of themselves.  And all for what?  We beat Zarkon just for his shitty son to show up out of nowhere.  There will always be someone else to fight, someone else that has to be killed.   _

“Hey...hey it’ll be okay buddy, it’ll be okay.  It always works out in the end.  We’ve faced nightmares Hunk, we can face this one too,” Lance cooed and Hunk hiccup, taking a deep breath to say something when the caste suddenly shook, the alarm rang out through the castle a second later.  With Shiro not there to reject, Coran had recorded Lance making a siren and had started projecting it when something was wrong.  It was kind of funny, a way to lighten everyone up or share a little smirk with about.  Lance and Hunk separated, becoming tense.

“Paladins!  Get to your lions!  We’ve run into an ambush!”  Allura’s voice sounded over the intercom and then Hunk and Lance were running from the room and down the hall, Lance shot him a look as they ran and he shook his head.

_ No time to cry, I can’t let the others see or feel my distress _ .  

They nearly collided with Keith and Pidge who were hauling ass from the other side of the castle, the two hallways merging into one.  Hunk didn’t miss the way Keith brushed up against Lance.   _ They can show weakness, and can confide in each other _ .  They all slowed down as they went to turn down the different hangers but Hunk completely stopped.  

“Wait,” he said and they all paused, turning to see what he needed.  He moved forward, wrapping all three of them in a tight hug, holding them for only seconds.  The castle shook again and they broke apart, each ripping their gear on and getting into their lions.  

_ They need me to be strong, they need me to take out these ships and kill the people in them, so that we can live and so that others can be free.  My team needs me to be brave and be strong when they can’t be.  I have to lift them up, as the leg of Voltron, I must lift up the team.  _

**Author's Note:**

> So, not as angsty as Lance's but ehhh he definitely has his own problems! I'm not sure who I'll do next tbh, but if you don't mind please leave a comment or kudos! I like knowing what people think about my work so feed back would be really appreciated!


End file.
